Six booked for looting lakhs from ATM kiosks

Nashik: Six persons, who are currently jailed for allegedly looting an ATM kiosk, have been booked for a similar theft of Rs 9.60 lakh from another ATM kiosk in April, police said today.

The gang was arrested on June 8 from Gujarat in connection with theft at an ATM kiosk on April 14. Further investigation revealed that it was the same gang which looted a sum of Rs 9.60 lakh from an ATM kiosk of SBI Bank at Shivaji Nagar on April 15, they said.

Complaint of the SBI ATM theft was registered by the bank yesterday.

Both the theft took place under Upnagar police station limits, its in-charge Ashok Bhagat said.

He said the six accused identified as — Shambhu alias Karan Singh, Ramdhar Sahadev, Mohd Shoaib Sheikh, Bajrang Singh, Durgaprasad Jha and Jahangir Sheikh — were nabbed from Gujarat on June 8 for looting Rs 16.20 lakh from ATM kiosk of ICICI bank on April 14.

The complaint of ICICI bank ATM theft was registered in the first week of June, following which the gang members were apprehended and are currently lodged in a jail, he said.

The officer said the modus operandi of the gang involved breaking into “hood lock” of the ATM machine and installing virus into it which disabled the functioning of CCTV cameras.

Hence, based on the nature of the crime at both the kiosks, police have booked the same persons in connection with the SBI ATM theft.

He said complaint has been lodged in both the cases this month as banks came to know about the theft only after details of transactions were taken out and syphoning of the large sum was seen.

Police have lodged a case under section 380 (theft) of IPC and relevant sections of IT Act against the six persons in connection with the SBI ATM theft.